Colorado deputies discover thousands of fentanyl pills in furniture boxes

Deputies in Colorado's high country made a major drug bust on Thursday when they discovered thousands of fentanyl pills hidden inside furniture boxes.

The Eagle County Sheriff's Office said the incident started as a routine traffic stop on I-70.

A deputy assigned to the Gore Range Narcotic Interdiction Team Task Force (GRANITE) says they saw a Toyota Corolla with Arizona plates violating several traffic laws. GRANITE is a multi-jurisdictional task force working to combat drug trafficking and related criminal activity in the region.

When the deputy pulled the vehicle over, they noticed the driver exhibiting strange behavior.

They began investigating the vehicle and found multiple boxes of furniture. However, approximately 500,000 suspected fentanyl pills were also hidden inside those boxes.

The deputy took the driver, 62-year-old Mirna M. Valenzuela from Mesa, Ariz., into custody. She was booked into the Eagle County Detention Facility and is being held on a $100,000 bond.

Valenzuela is facing multiple charges, including unlawful distribution of a controlled substance, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and special offender-fentanyl.

The sheriff's office encouraged anyone with information on this case to contact them at (970) 328-8500.